“Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants,” is how Michael Pollan opens his latest book “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto”. It’s a simple message but a poignant one especially for those of us who are interested in eating well and eating mindfully.

Lucky for us in Los Angeles, Pollan, a New York Times journalist who lives in Berkeley and authored the best-selling “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, is speaking Monday night, February 11th, at the Central Library.

I profiled Pollan for the Los Angeles Times and he’s an engaging, funny guy who won’t fail to entertain and educate. I just read the preface of the new book and already I’m hooked by his musing about what he calls the “nutritional industrial complex” – i.e.: our willingness to abide by whatever nutrition trend is boosted by science and food marketers – and the resulting affliction of “orthorexia”. The latter a condition marked by an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy.

It’s fascinating stuff and as always a good read. And as he points out, when it comes to eating, making food selections based on ethics and the environment tend to be the healthiest choices after all.